The Executive Secretary of the Niger Basin Authority (NBA), Abderahim Bireme Hamid, along with the President of the Ad hoc Committee advocating for the implementation and operationalization of the Regional Climate Change Adaptation Fund (RCCAF) and the Payment for Environmental Services (PES) mechanism, Christine Gbedji were granted an audience on Friday 5 May 2023 by the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey, Minister in charge of NBA.

At the end of their stay in Yaounde, the Niger Basin Authority delegation led by its Executive Secretary, Abderahim Bireme Hamid, presented a report on the awareness-raising and advocacy mission to Cameroon from 30 April to 6 May 2023 for the setting up and operationalisation of the Regional Climate Change Adaptation Fund and the Payment for Environmental Services mechanism (RCCAF/PES).

Following the audience granted by the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT), Alamine Ousmane Mey, the Executive Secretary of NBA specified that they came to present to MINEPAT the resolutions of the workshop with all the sectors affected by the issue of water, as well as the report of the discussions with the Ministry of Water and Energy and the Ministry of the Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development. “We have come to an interesting and very high-level conclusion, which we have just submitted to the President of the Ad Hoc Committee”, said Abderahim Bireme Hamid.

For Christine Gbedji, because water is the lifeblood and economic wealth of the world, it is very important to set up a structure that will be able to cover all the expenditure likely to contribute to the development of the 160 million people who benefit from the river in the Niger basin. “With the coordinators and the main stakeholders in Cameroon, we did a great work, we identified potential sources to fund the RCCAF”, she declared. It should be noted that the Ad Hoc Committee advocating for the implementation and operationalisation of the RCCAF/PES is mandated to raise awareness among stakeholders in the nine NBA member countries. This will lead to fulfilling a decision Heads of State had taken in 2016 on the setting up and operationalisation of RCCAF/PES.